How to get overtime pay for shifts on a rotating schedule

When this guide applies

Use this guide if your time sheet records work beyond the es­tab­lished sched­ule but your payslip does not show clear payment for it. The main risk is im­me­di­ate­ly mul­ti­ply­ing every late hour by two: with shift work, some long shifts may be part of the sched­ule, and over­time arises only after the hours are prop­er­ly com­pared with the norm.

For an em­ploy­ee at a lo­gis­tics or man­u­fac­tur­ing busi­ness in Lviv or Lviv Oblast, first find out which ref­er­ence period the em­ploy­er has set. If it is a month or longer, the sched­ule for an in­di­vid­ual week does not give the full answer. Request the ap­proved sched­ule, norm, and time sheet for the whole period, and keep proof of your request.

Applicable rule and procedure

Under Article 106 of the Labour Code, over­time hours for hourly paid em­ploy­ees are paid at twice the hourly rate. Piece-rate pay uses a dif­fer­ent ad­di­tion­al-payment mech­a­nism, so the cal­cu­la­tion below does not apply to it.

Where cu­mu­la­tive time­keep­ing is used, over­time is de­ter­mined at the end of the entire ref­er­ence period: hours worked are com­pared with the norm for that period. A shift longer than the usual eight hours is not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly over­time without this com­par­i­son. During martial law, Law No. 2136-IX changes certain working-time rules, in­clud­ing dis­ap­ply­ing the limit in Article 65(1) of the Labour Code, but double pay under Article 106 remains in force.

After con­firm­ing the hours and rate, use the over­time pay cal­cu­la­tor. It shows the full gross amount for those hours; to iden­ti­fy any short­fall, sep­a­rate­ly compare it with amounts already accrued and paid. If your shift fell between 22:00 and 06:00, also check how to obtain the night-work sup­ple­ment and cal­cu­late the night-work sup­ple­ment itself.

Steps to take

1. Request doc­u­ments about your work sched­ule. Ask for the time norm, shift sched­ule, ref­er­ence-period dates, and doc­u­ment con­firm­ing your hourly rate. Make the request in writing.

2. Collect records of actual work. Compare the time sheet with orders, as­sign­ments, work cor­re­spon­dence, and other records of work per­formed. Mark sep­a­rate­ly the hours that are dis­put­ed.

3. Count only con­firmed over­time. With cu­mu­la­tive time­keep­ing, wait for the data cov­er­ing the full ref­er­ence period and compare it with the ap­plic­a­ble norm. If the em­ploy­er does not provide the norm or time sheet, state this in your claim.

4. Check the pay. Mul­ti­ply the con­firmed gross hourly rate by the con­firmed over­time hours and by two. Compare the result with the sep­a­rate entries on your payslip and bank de­posits; do not claim again what has already been paid.

5. Submit a written claim. State the period, sched­ule, hours, rate, accrued amount, and the dif­fer­ence you ask the em­ploy­er to explain or pay. Attach copies of sup­port­ing records and keep proof of de­liv­ery. If there is no re­sponse or payment, review your options and the current time limit for filing a salary claim in court.

What to check before filing

For shift work in Lviv, check whether the sched­ule covers every day of the ref­er­ence period, whether it was amended, and how ab­sences were record­ed. Compare the norm for your em­ploy­ee cat­e­go­ry with the hours ac­tu­al­ly worked. If payroll derived the hourly rate from a salary, ask for a sep­a­rate cal­cu­la­tion showing the time norm used; an ar­bi­trary di­vi­sion of the salary can distort your claim.

The cal­cu­la­tor result is the full gross pay for the hours entered. If the or­di­nary-rate portion has already been in­clud­ed in your salary, the po­ten­tial dif­fer­ence may be smaller. A useful month-by-month table lists con­firmed hours, pay due, actual accrual, payment date, and unpaid balance. For general wage arrears, see the sep­a­rate guide on how to recover unpaid wages.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer should review the matter if the em­ploy­er dis­putes your actual hours, refuses to provide time sheets, changed the sched­ule retroac­tive­ly, or uses cu­mu­la­tive time­keep­ing without a clear norm. It is also worth re­view­ing the records when night, holiday, or rest-day work is in­volved at the same time: one label, “over­time,” may conceal dif­fer­ent pay rules.

For an em­ploy­ment dispute in Lviv or the region, a lawyer can compare the shift sched­ule with the norm for the ref­er­ence period, sep­a­rate dis­put­ed hours from con­firmed ones, and prepare a claim with an accrual table. That doc­u­men­tary review, rather than the general number of long shifts, de­ter­mines what to do next.